Review of In the Heat of the Night (75)

Plot
Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia Homicide detective, is home to see his mother in the rural Mississippi. Before leaving, he is arrested on general principles when a rich white man is found dead, and Tibbs' being black is reason enough. When his identity is established, his boss offers his services to the small town sheriff who has little experience with murder investigations.

Jason's Thoughts
I have some mixed feelings about In the Heat of the Night.  On one hand you have some great acting going on.  Both Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger are great in their roles as Virgil Tibbs and Chief Gillespie.  Plus, it tackled touchy subjects for its time, Civil Rights and racism in the south.  

The movie does have its problems, though, mainly in the story as a whole.  The plot of the movie, which is that of a murder mystery, is all superficial.  Finding out who the killer is took a backseat to the racism and prejudice in the south. This is even more evident when the murderer is revealed to be that of a minor character.  

All in all, In the Heat of the Night isn’t a bad movie, but it is a mediocre crime drama that seemed to drag on and last a lot longer than its 104 minute runtime. How it won the Academy Award for Best Picture with its sorely lacking story is beyond me, but I will give the movie credit again for what it was trying to accomplish.  

Crystal's Thoughts
I can recall watching many episodes of the TV show In the Heat of the Night. I will admit that I never gave any thought to where the idea for the show had come. I doubt I could have easily found out either in those days as the web was merely a thought. So, I was excited to see this movie on the list. Finally, I would be able to see how it all started.

With that said, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Part of me figured Gillespie and Tibbs would have already been working together. The dynamic instead was seeing the two be brought together, Gillespie the police chief of a very white Southern community of Sparta, Tibbs a Northerner from Philly, a very black Northerner. With that, it was easy to see why this movie made the all time top movie list.  It took on a subject that I am sure during its time (1967) was still quite controversial.

The film moved relatively quickly. The biggest issue I had with it was that some of the parts of the film weren’t exactly accurate.  The scene that stuck out to me most was near the beginning when Harvey is being chased by the train tracks. Just moments later the body was being examined at four in the morning. Yet as we watched the murder suspect be chased down by Sparta’s finest, the lighting made it appear that suddenly it was late afternoon by the shadows being cast and the way the sunlight was projected. It certainly wasn’t the wee hours of the morning any longer.

Other than a few minor scene issues, I enjoyed the movie overall. It did drag a bit but was worth a watch to see how exactly it was all those episodes of In the Heat of the Night I watched growing up came to be. I may even watch the sequels to this film.

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